Danaë's golden shower by Klimt 1907

 

Gustave Klimt loves to design textiles and models for Emilie Flöge’s  fashion salon. She is Klimts true love and compagnion until the end of his live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana%C3%AB

James Whistler 'Chez George Sauer' - 1858

At the age of 24, the American painter James McNeill Whistler, makes a drawing of George Sauer, the French pub owner of ‘Le Lion Rouge’ for a plate of soup ...  – source: Freer Gallery of Art

Detail painting Antonius Claeissens 1605

Antonius Claeissens (Bruges 1536-1613) paints 'Mars conquers Ignorance' in 1605.

Mars, surrounded by Art (holding her painters palette - photo detail) and Sciences, steps on Ingnorence depicted with long pointy ears. - Location Groeninge Museum Bruges

George Henry's Japanese Lady - 1894

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_(painter)

 

 

 

The Apprentice Pillar - Rosslyn Chapel

 

Roslin Glen, Scotland - The "Apprentice Pillar” gets its name from a legend dating from the 18th century involving the master mason in charge of the stonework in the Roslin chapel (°1446) and his young apprentice. According to the legend, the master mason did not believe that the apprentice could perform the complicated task of carving the column without seeing the original which formed the inspiration for the design.

The master mason travelled to see the original himself, but upon his return was enraged to find that the upstart apprentice had completed the column anyway. In a fit of jealous anger the mason took up his mallet and struck the apprentice on the head, killing him. The legend concludes that as punishment for his crime, the master mason's face was carved into the opposite corner to forever gaze upon his apprentice's pillar.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosslyn_Chapel

Georges Vantongerloo (Antwerp 1886 - Paris 1965)

"The disappearance of the function to depict opens the way to pure art." - 'Seeing, understanding, appreciating art', by Kurt Kranz 1964

Composition (GV 10A)  -  1918

Oil on canvas, ca. 20 x 30 cm, collection Chantal & Jacob Bill, Swizerland

After Vantongerloo was wounded in World War I, he moved to Den Haag in Holland where he met Jules Smalzigaug, the only Belgian Futurist. Smalzigaug  introduced him to Modern Art. In 1918 Vantongerloo signed the ‘DE STIJL’ manifest.

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”  ― Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Michelangelo's signature on Pietà - 1499

The story goes that Michelangelo (at age 24) signed his pietà after it was placed in the Basilic because he could not endure that the public was guessing by whom it was made. Not only die he sign with his name but added his provenance ‘Florence’ as well: “Michael. Agelus. Bonarotus Florent Faciebat”.  He never signed his work again.

The Pietà (174cm x 195cm) from Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is located in the St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.

(Image courtesy of: http://saintpetersbasilica.org/)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo)

Gino Severini's Blue Dancer 1912

FUTURISM AND THE VITALIST INHERITANCE

Out of its origin in Greek metaphysical thought, Vitalism favours the fluid state of ‘becoming’ over the state of completion suggested by the notion of ‘being’, it prefers movement to stillness, values action above inaction and enjoys more than structure. In short, Vitalism envisages life in terms of a force that arises from within and produces its own very special type of order. For this reason shades of Vitalist thinking frequently emerge in thinking of artist and this is particularly true when, like the Futurists, they are speaking on behalf of some imagined, new universal order.

As Carlo Carra wrote in 1913: ‘We Futurists seek to identify with the core of things through the power of intuition, so that our Ego will merge with their uniqueness in a complex whole. Thus we depict the planes of a picture like a spheric expansion in space, obtaining the sense of perpetual motion which is innate in every living thing. Only this way can we express the soul and atmosphere of all things.’ – source: ‘How to read Modern Painting’ by Jon Thompson /Thames & Hudson 2006